


Better Days (Street Cred)

by stover



Series: to me, in a different life [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Best Friends, Childhood Friends, Developing Friendships, F/M, Non-Massacre AU, POV First Person, Reincarnation, Shamanism, Team as Family, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-30
Updated: 2019-11-13
Packaged: 2020-09-30 09:38:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20445014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stover/pseuds/stover
Summary: At eight years old, Haruno Sakura is a hot-tempered menace with a penchant for fighting—and has the mind of a woman who's lived this life, just once before.





	1. CREDENCE: Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> Meant to be read and understood alongside [Better Days (Vapid Perceptions)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6785518). May contain events previously unexplored, due to the "I'm-Writing-On-The-Fly" syndrome, because apparently, my brain thinks an outline is only a suggestion.

I was eight when I met Ino, nine when I met Sasuke and Naruto, and twelve when I met Kakashi. But I loved them all, before I ever met them.

Because I knew each and every one of them in another life.

* * *

My family was of a small, merchant class. We were neither wealthy nor shinobi, and thus lived peaceably in the village, knowing only what it meant to own a name, and knowing nothing of what it meant for a name to own you. 

Perhaps that was why my parents only had one child, even if they did not get a son. The laws of inheritance were different between amongst civilians than they were for shinobi. I would have been allowed to inherit my family’s business, though owning property could only be done through a man. 

Through my studies, and then with my marriage into the Uchiha name, I learned how women of the shinobi class were different.

Kunoichi held their land as they did their own weapons—with right, with purpose, and with intent. We were respected, valued as assets to the village as any other shinobi, and recognized as commanders of our own bodies and minds. 

And yet, for a time, we were unable to inherit titles. That was a privilege belonging to only the founding families, whose power and influence reached beyond that of a normal shinobi, for the sole reason of having a name that bore the weight of the village like a sword hanging over a throne by a thread.

For a time, I believed it was Konoha’s founding families that claimed the sword and the Hokage that sat upon the throne. Only now, do I realize we are neither sword nor throne anymore than the Hokage is.

We are, together, the thread.


	2. CREDENCE: Part 2

My children are one, and like my own parents, a beloved daughter. I loved her before I met her, before I knew her, for she was child of the man I loved. 

I can still see her, can still remember her smile, her gaze, her laugh, each time I see my own face, and hear my own laugh. And always, I feel an ache, deep and longing, each time I see her in me, each time I remember.

Because I will never see her again.

  
  
  


At least, not for many, many years.


	3. CREDENCE: Part 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, fair note: This is written in a completely different narrative style than the other two, (because, in my head, it's meant to be read all at once) so it'll start off like this and gradually extend.

I’ve always known the shinobi life was not a glamorous one. That is not why I settled upon it.

I chose it to follow a boy.

But I stayed for myself.


	4. CREDENCE: Part 4

I remember the last of my husband. I remember the last of my dear friend.

I don’t remember the last of my daughter.

And I remember how I was ripped away, to be brought here.


	5. CREDENCE: Part 5

My family here are not of the merchant class. My family here are not shinobi.

We are shamans who speak the tongues of our beloved ones long past. We are landed gentry who flourished from the delicate craft of roasting tea. We are wealthy, and know what it is for a name to own you, what it means to be the thread.

But we are still Haruno Kizashi, and Haruno Mebuki.

And I am still Haruno Sakura.


End file.
